1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to providing easier access to online information by a computer user. More specifically, the present invention provides a user-friendly interface to a computer user seeking online or help information pertinent to a task or operation that the user wants to perform or understand. In addition, the present invention provides the capabilities for programs and help authors to create named window types, and define the properties of those windows for use in providing online information to a computer user.
2. Related Art
For years, software developers have sought effective ways to provide users with information concerning the operation and features of a program in a timely and effective manner. The term xe2x80x9cprogramxe2x80x9d as used here refers to a class of items, including applications software, operating systems, applets, etc. and is not limited to any particular embodiment. For example, software developers have faced the problem of providing information concerning the operation and features of a program, such as an operating system, as well as for a particular application, such as a word processor. These examples are provided as illustrations only; software developers have been challenged with finding ways to provide user information for all types of programs.
One approach to the problem is to provide user information online, for example, by including the information within the program itself The user is then able to call up the desired information from dedicated files stored in association with the program. With such an online approach, a user typically accesses information concerning how the program operates and answers to specific questions through the use of a so-called xe2x80x9cHelpxe2x80x9d feature. Such an on-line help feature typically includes the use of xe2x80x9cwindows.xe2x80x9d
A window is a graphical feature on a display screen, which can have borders, a particular size, placement, color and/or other unique attributes. A window generally contains its own document or messages. In window-based programs, the screen can be divided into several windows, each of which has its own boundaries and can contain a different document (or another view into the same document). Each window might also contain its own menu or other controls, and the user might be able to enlarge and shrink individual windows at will. In some programs, windows are opened side by side on the screen; in others; open windows can overlap one another. A program such as an operating system controls the display of windows by writing instructions to a graphics display mechanism; the instructions will include information regarding the placement of the window on the display screen, the characteristics of the graphics elements such as the borders, menus, buttons, etc., and the information regarding the window contents, such as a word processing file, which will be displayed within the graphical window.
Many operating systems provide services to applications that allow the application to easily create a window by providing the window characteristics, as well as information regarding moving and resizing of the window to the operating system. Thus, operating systems and application programs can xe2x80x9cownxe2x80x9d windows that display information for the user. In fact, a window can be created and/or controlled by any program that is capable of communicating with a graphics display mechanism.
A dialog box is a particular form of window. Typically, a dialog box is used to convey information to the user or to gather information from the user.
With the prior art help systems, a menu of available help information is typically displayed in a navigational window pane when the user requests help by accessing a displayed help button or prompt. The user can select desired information by accessing an item in the navigational window pane. This results in the display of selected information in a separate selected content information window pane. The navigational window pane may be presented in a variety of formats. For example, the navigational window pane may contain a choice of help contents, a search function for finding a specific piece of information, or a listing of frequently asked questions. The information presented in the navigational window pane may be indexed via so-called xe2x80x9chash functionsxe2x80x9d to the desired information itself which is displayed in the selected content information window pane. The information in the selected content information window pane is related to the navigational window pane information and is the information sought by the user.
The prior art help system is generally provided as a separate program from the program for which it is supplying help. In addition, the information provided by the prior art help system is typically stored in association with the program itself. This means, for example, that the help capability is delivered to the user along with the application or operating system itself. With the prior art help systems, typically no history of the user""s access to help is maintained; with each help access, the previous help access is lost.
When managing windows between programs, for example, between the help program and the program for which it is supplying help, it is particularly important that a window from one program does not block a window from another program such that the user is prevented from seeing and accessing the information in the first window. In particular, many prior art help systems suffer this particular problem because the help system is completely separate from the program and/or application, and the help system competes for a location on the display screen and for control with other programs and/or applications, especially the one with which it is associated.
Many prior art systems for providing user help also suffer from the problem that a navigational window pane and a selected content information pane displaying help contents are separate windows and cannot be simultaneously displayed. An example of online help in the prior art is shown in Microsoft""s WINHELP 4 software provided in Windows95. In WINHELP 4, when a user accesses the help feature, a dialog box opens displaying the list of available help information. An example of such a dialog box is shown in FIG. 1. As seen in FIG. 1, when a user requests help information, a navigational window pane is displayed containing a Table of Contents, for example. In the example shown, the user has selected the topic xe2x80x9cFinding a file or folder.xe2x80x9d The specific help content is accessed by clicking on a xe2x80x9cDisplayxe2x80x9d button. At that point, the navigational window pane containing the Table of Contents is closed and a selected content information window pane is displayed containing the content information corresponding to the selected topic, as shown in FIG. 2. The selected content information window pane shown in the example of FIG. 2 contains information to instruct the user on how to find a file or folder. Significantly, the window panes shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 are actually separate and independent windows. It is impossible to display the selected content information pane while simultaneously displaying navigational window pane containing the help Table of Contents.
If the selected content information window pane of FIG. 2 does not contain the information needed or desired by the user, the user is required to click on the xe2x80x9cHelp Topicsxe2x80x9d button in FIG. 2 to return to the navigational window pane shown in FIG. 1. The net result is that the user is required to xe2x80x9cjumpxe2x80x9d back and forth between the navigational window pane and the selected content information window pane to find the needed information. This procedure may be cumbersome if the user is uncertain of the topic name or is looking up multiple topics.
It should be noted that the navigational window pane of FIG. 1 may contain alternate ways to access the help information in addition to a Table of Contents. As shown in FIG. 1, an xe2x80x9cIndexxe2x80x9d tab and a xe2x80x9cFindxe2x80x9d tab are provided in addition to a tab for selecting a Table of Contents. These and other additional ways of accessing the selected content information located in the selected content information window pane suffer from the same drawback as is described with respect to the Table of Contents.
Additional problems are experienced with the prior art approaches to providing online user information. For example, when accessing a help button, the user cannot access the program itself while staying within help. In other words, the user is required to close the help function in order to return to the program. FIGS. 3 and 4 depict this problem facing the user of the prior art approach to providing user help in an application. The program shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 is an application program, namely Microsoft""s Excel spreadsheet software, but any program could be used for illustration. In particular, FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate that the user who has selected help is first presented with a navigational window pane (FIG. 3) and then is provided with a selected content information window pane (FIG. 4). In order to return to the application after reviewing the selected content information window pane, the selected content information window pane must first be closed. The same is true if the user wishes to move from the navigational window pane of FIG. 3 to the application. Further, the user cannot access the application while simultaneously reviewing the selected content information window pane (or the navigational window pane), making the help feature difficult for the user to use.
In recent years, the popularity of the worldwide network of computer networks known as the Internet has grown tremendously. Much of that growth is due to the accessability of the World Wide Web, which is the open community of hypertext-enabled document servers and readers on the Internet. As a part of the web""s growth, an authoring language and distribution system was developed for creating and sharing multimedia-enabled, integrated electronic documents over the web. That language is called Hypertext Markup Language or xe2x80x9cHTMLxe2x80x9d. HTML, along with software for browsing the Internet, has made possible the wide-spread access of information on the web today.
Due to the drawbacks and disadvantages associated with previous help systems, there exists a need for an improved way of providing online help information to a computer user. Moreover, there exists a need for allowing programs and help authors to create named window types, and to define the properties of those windows for use in providing online information to a computer user. Also, it is desirable that an improved help system be capable of accessing and utilizing both HTML content and the Internet.
The present invention provides improved access by a computer user to online information, and in particular to online help information. According to the present invention, a user-friendly interface is provided to a computer user seeking online or help information pertinent to a task or operation that the user is performing. In addition, the present invention provides the capabilities for programs and help authors to create named window types, and define the properties of those windows for use in providing online information to a computer user.
The improved user interface of the present invention is accomplished by providing online or help information which can take advantage of HTML and the Internet, thereby providing software developers greater flexibility and the ability to provide more timely help information to computer users. Whereas the prior art required the indexing of help navigational information into help content files which are associated with the program, the present invention uses so-called universal resource locators or xe2x80x9cURLsxe2x80x9d to access help information.
According to the present invention, a navigational window pane is provided within the same window as an HTML window pane. In addition, the present invention supports intelligent tracking between the navigational window pane and the HTML window pane. In other words, whatever topic is selected from the navigational window pane is reflected in the HTML window pane""s display. As a result, according to the present invention, the information displayed in the HTML window pane is synchronized to any selected topic in the navigational window pane.
A xe2x80x9cHide/Showxe2x80x9d button is provided so that a user can remove the navigational window pane from the display by selecting the xe2x80x9cHidexe2x80x9d button when the user is satisfied with the information displayed in the HTML window pane. Selecting the xe2x80x9cHidexe2x80x9d button may result, for example, in the display of only the toolbar and the HTML window pane related to that topic. When the xe2x80x9cShowxe2x80x9d button is selected by the user, the navigational window pane is again displayed concurrently with the HTML window pane. Activation of the xe2x80x9cShowxe2x80x9d button may ensure that the entire window is displayed on the monitor screen and that no portion of the window is lost off of the edge of the screen.
By simultaneously providing both the navigational window pane and the HTML window pane to the user, the user can easily determine whether the displayed information in the HTML window pane is desired. If it is not desired, the user can quickly and readily select different information without having to change or close the window. As a result, the user is able to more easily and effectively access online information and/or use the help application than was possible with prior art techniques for providing user information.
In addition, according to the present invention, the information displayed in the HTML window pane may come from a variety of sources including the Internet, a local drive, a CD-ROM or any other indexable source. The information displayed in the HTML window pane may contain multimedia or active content data. Significantly, the information displayed in the HTML window pane may contain HTML files which can link the user to any site via the Internet. As a result, it is possible to provide a user with updated and more timely help information than was possible with the prior art because information provided via the Internet may be updated on a real time basis. Moreover, a navigational expansion can be stored as part of the user""s history so that when the navigational window pane is later accessed by a user, the user can readily navigate xe2x80x9cbackwards,xe2x80x9d that is, the user can easily return to previously accessed areas within the navigational window pane, thus increasing the ease of use of the help system.
Also according to the present invention, HTML help files may be embedded into a program. Specifically, a help tab may be provided which a user can access while working directly in a program. Previously, a help button was provided which separately launched a help function, a noted problem with the prior art. When the help button was accessed, a help window was opened over the program being used, as previously described. According to this aspect of the present invention, a help tab is provided so that help can be provided to the user within the program itself As a result, a user can easily access both the desired help and the program. In addition, the user can maintain his or her current place in a program while moving through the HTML window pane, for example.
Another feature of the present invention is provided by performing the function of the xe2x80x9cHidexe2x80x9d button automatically whenever a user clicks anywhere outside the help window, thereby saving the user from having to click on the xe2x80x9cHidexe2x80x9d button to hide the navigational window pane. Likewise, whenever a user requests help according to this variation of the invention, the help window automatically opens in an expanded state, that is, the help window opens with both the navigational window pane and the HTML window pane displayed. Again, in this way, the user is saved from having to operate the xe2x80x9cHide/Showxe2x80x9d button. However, it should be noted that the xe2x80x9cHide/Showxe2x80x9d button still functions as previously described and therefore may be accessed by the user, if desired.